Territory



' (No Model.)

W. H. WILLISORAPT.

WELL CRIB.

No. 400,155. Patented Mar, 26, 1889! lXWcmaooa/y ammmbo c NITED STATES- ILLIAM II. \VILLISCRAFT, OF JUNIPER, ARIZONA TERRITORY.

WELL-CRIB.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 400,155, dated March 26, 1889.

Application filed June 20. 1888. Serial No. 277,622. (No model.)

clear, and exact description of the invention,

such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to Well-cribs of that class used to keep quicksand, gravel, and mud from running into the well from the surrounding earth when such obstacles are met with in the process of digging wells.

It frequently occurs in digging wells that a rock or hard-pan is met with at one side of the well, while quicksand, gravel, or mud may be found at other sides. WVhen cribs secured together to move downward bodily as one piece meet such hard-pan or rock, the mud, quicksand, or gravel may work under the opposite side of the crib and prevent work on the rock to remove it. Therefore the object of my invention is to adapt a crib to be settled down unevenly or part at a time, as may be required, so that the side of the crib over the mud, 850., may be driven into the mud deep enough to prevent its flowing into the well while other work is being done.

To this end my invention consists of a wellcrib made of loose staves movably joined at their edges, as hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure I is a side elevation of my well-crib in service, the earth being shown partly in vertical section. Fig. II is a plan view of the crib. Fig. 111 is a perspective view of a single stave of the same, and Fig. IV is a perspective view of the removable tongue. Fig. V is a horizontal section of portions of two fullsized staves and the tongue -strip at their juncture.

6 represents the inner side of one of the staves of my crib; '7, the outer face, and 8 the lower end, which I prefer to have sharpened by cutting the slant wholly on the inner side, in order that it may work the dirt which it displaces into the well for removal.

If it is known from the beginning that the ground contains quicksand, these staves may be driven with their cutting-edges at the innrr face, in order to force the sand outward and compact it as much as possible around the crib.

The stave is grooved in each edge 9 to re ceive a tongue-strip, 10, whereby each stave aids the adjacent ones to maintain their proper positions, and when a series of these staves and tongues are joined in a cylindrical form they constitute my well-crib. Planks two inches thick and about eight inches wide are suitable to form the staves, and any number of staves may be used that are required to form a crib of the desired size. It is common to dig a well down to the quicksand or other obstacle and then to put in a complete crib. I proceed in the same manner, except that my crib may be put in place one stave at a time. Then the staves may be driven down one at a time, as the judgment of the operator shall dictate. Should it be desired to start the well in a soft or muddy spot of earth, the crib may be formed on the spot and hoops or ropes temporarily placed around it to keep the staves together until they shall have been driven deep enough into the ground to be held upright thereby. Staves provided each with a tongue projecting at one edge and a groove in the other edge are objectionable for three causes: First, it is a waste of theplanks to cut away and leave the tongue standing in the center of its edge; and, second, such tongues are likely to be broken off in rough usage, or to be so jammed out of shape as to prevent a close joint of the staves, and such staves are not reversible side for side and end for end, as mine are, and, furthermore, the tongues when made in strips may be put in in short pieces.

I have devised special means for driving the staves and means for protecting their heads from being jammed out of shape by the hammer, which are the subjects of other applications for patents.

I am aware that planks have before been grooved in both edges and joined by means of tongues and grooves in plane forms and also in cylindrical forms. The latter have been used as water-pipes, called penstocks IOC bnt'they are always elosely hooped and the stavesnre not free to slide endwise indepeni'lently of OflCll other, as in my well-crib.

I mn also aware that planks have been sharpened. :11 one end. and. driven. into the earth singly and in groups, as the ease required, to stop the How ol:- wnt'er, &e.; but I 11111 not aware that sueh. planks have ever be fore been grouped together in eylind rienl. form, and yet each left free to be driven llHlU-Ilfllltlently oi its neighbor, as the sieves of 21 wellerih.

When, the full. length of the stares of one l erih are doing serviee, zlllUljllOl' erib nlnybe started elose within it and. be set'iti led down 11 stave at :1 tin1e,es required.

may become neeessnnv to plnee hoops inside the crib, and in order to support such hoops they may be fastened to two or more stoves, provided they donot interfere with the stares Sometimes it WILLIALll ll. WILLISCRAl l.

\f i t 1 iesse \VM. ll. )leGnnw, (i). LINCOLN.

being driven independently of eneh other. 

